20th Century Type Designers

Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to the century when type design exploded
Review: Carter's book is heavily waited towards the period 1900-1960, which was in a way a golden age for type design. As ATF, Monotype and Linotype reached their ascendancy, new types were commissioned at an unprecedented rate and many of the best designs were created (or re-created) for the current generation of typesetting equipment. The advent of phototype in the 60s brought this first twentieth century golden age to an end, while PostScript opened a new period. Latter day type designers are cursorily treated courtesy of a second edition (which you're looking at here), so for that end of the spectrum you'll have to look elsewhere (the book has not yet been written), but it does at least provide a good overview of the major figures of the end of the metal type era.